Surprise home visits and surprise hotness attacks this week on Demi-chan. What do parents of a vampire act like?

Interview With A Vampire’s Parents

Highway’s Life Tips: If you have a mustache like that, don’t.

So super-fast Tetsuo goes to visit Hikari’s parents for a talk, just to get a little more familiar with what life is like for them as the parents of a vampire. But the reality of the conversation is that it’s not really about what it’s like being the parents of a vampire, and more what it’s like being the parents of twin teenage girls. It seemed like there was a lot of worry about what a vampire would be like, leading to changes in their life like their father quitting work to stay home as a parent, but in the end it’s hard to say that Hikari’s really much different from any girl. She’s certainly not someone who seems to be difficult or attention-hogging, in the way that, say, a disabled child would be. But there seems to be at least some lingering… should we call it favoritism?… in the family dynamic due to Hikari’s being a demi.

Himari gets fed up sometimes

The feeling that I get isn’t that there are a lot of problems with Hikari as a vampire, but more that the personality clashes between Hikari and Himari are somewhat fierce. And since the issue is that Hikari is the one who’s usually breaking rules and conventions and protocol, not necessarily things that would get someone in a lot of trouble, but more just indications of selfishness and thoughtlessness, I think that Himari, as the one who’s usually on the receiving end of such slights, might feel like Hikari gets away with more than she should. Is this because of 15 years of parental worries about Hikari being a vampire? Or is it because the things they are arguing about are, in the grand scheme of the world, pretty penny-ante? Either way, it certainly seems like Himari would like a little more crackdown on Hikari, as she outright tells Tetsuo: “You have my ok to scold her more often and not coddle her!” That certainly gives the impression that she feels her parents are too soft on Hikari.

The whole family is actually pretty happy

But as a parent, you really wouldn’t want to step in every time there is a fight between sisters like that, especially when the two of them seem to be able to deal with the issues mostly on their own. Himari is able to hold a degree of shame over Hikari, perhaps because Hikari cares enough that she doesn’t want Himari mad at her. And I really don’t think it’s a situation where Himari wouldn’t get the same kind of “coddling” as Hikari does (which would truly be favoritism), just that Himari’s not the kind of person who lets herself get in a situation where others would have to show her favor like that. She has too much pride in not being that person. In the end, their family seems like it’s a normal family, and the fact of there being a vampire in it is no more of an issue than if one of them were a sports star or a chess champion. But I’d bet that Himari wouldn’t mind a bit more consideration from her sister.

That’s not how any of this works!

Rainy Days

Machi indulges herself a little bit

There’s a difference with rainy days. They throw off our routines, they make us change our habits, they affect our moods. They make us huddle under umbrellas, wear different shoes, or even worse. And for some people, they change much more than that. When it rains, Machi can’t really walk around holding an umbrella so, for her, rainy days involve getting a ride home. It’s really a side thing that Hikari doesn’t mention that her father is coming to pick Machi up today, at the request of her parents who are busy doing other things. It’s another benefit of becoming friends and the families networking together, especially when one parent doesn’t work. So Machi waits in the safe space of the Biology prep room, and takes a nap. And when she wakes up and finds Tetsuo seemingly asleep, she takes a little bit of liberty to rub his hair. Too bad he’s not asleep, but doesn’t want to startle or embarrass her. I think he could have faked waking up and been ok, but instead he just pretends the whole time until her head leaves with Hikari’s dad.

Someone’s turning it on, just a little bit

And that’s after he’s had another encounter with Sakie, who casually drops a couple pieces of information about herself, and then runs herself a little test on Tetsuo. For a little aside, when he’d previously touched her hand and showed no reaction, I think that the show’s translation was a little unkind to Tetsuo, as it had Sakie saying that maybe men without strong sexual desires aren’t as affected. I like the manga version of the translation better, which implied more that as an older man, Tetsuo’s maybe not thinking about sex as much as someone else, so it affected him less. But that lack of reaction, whatever the reasoning, just leads Sakie on to wanting to get closer to him. So this time she turns on the blush, the boob squeeze, and the attention to see what his reaction will be. And Mr Smooth plays it cool, giving her the impression that he’s still not affected by her, and making her even happier and more attracted to him.

I don’t know if you could say that’s “no reaction”

I still wonder what Tetsuo would do if he was free to react to Sakie, although he’s the kind of guy who would still play it cool. It does seem like even if they were a couple, he’d probably keep it at a low boil anyway. But still, the thing I want to see most is a couple between those two. And with so many other people wanting that, I’m sure there would be a doujin (or few) of it. Heck, there are a bunch of MakiXNico and even MakiRinPana. Now, whether it would be good enough / popular enough to get scanned and translated is another question, but we’ll see in a few years. And maybe the story will get there on its own.

Damn, Tetsuo has some willpower not revealing his reaction to Sakie’s sexiness in her presence! They have just got to become a couple at some point.

Hikari and Himari may fight a lot like many siblings, but I wouldn’t want to dis one in the presence of the other. It’s hard to say which one would be more fierce in protecting the other.

I’m glad we got to see some of the family life of a family with a demi-chan and learned that the three families support each other. And that probably explains why one school has three demi-chan students, rare as they are. The families sent their daughters to the same high school so they wouldn’t be alone. It probably also explains why there’s a demi teacher at the school. The way I understand it, in Japan teachers are assigned to a school. So Sakie was assigned to the school with three demi-chans enrolled. So it’s not such a great coincidence after all to have four demis at the same school.

I don’t even know if I’d characterize what they do as fighting. Basically, Hikari is just negligent. She knows it, Himari knows it, and Himari points it out in hopes that Hikari will at least not be negligent the same way again. To me, fighting would be that each one of them thinks they’re right, and that’s not really the way they both see it.

It’s so hard to pick a favorite female character this season, but Hikari is in the straw poll for top five that is for sure.

I love seeing the girls’ parents bask in the glow of Hikari and Himari and their bickering normality. In the face of some of the complications that living with a vampire can bring (well this show’s version of a vampire) you’re quite happy to have it; and honestly the both of them are teenagers, you couldn’t stop the bickering anyway, so find the silver lining.

Ironman-sensei’s poker face is almost as strong as his physique. All jokes aside, it’s great that Sakie is starting to realize that she might have found someone she can legitimately like. Of course, right now that still hinges on her mistaken impression that Tetsuo isn’t affected by her latent attraction abilities. But whether or not the cat is eventually let out the bag, it’s a big step forward for her to seriously consider a relationship with someone.

I kinda think that even when the cat is let out of the bag, Sakie will appreciate how much Tetsuo has been able to act normal around her. It’s put her at ease so much, because rather than making her think too much about “do they only like me because being a succubus makes me really attractive?”, she’s been able to think about how much she likes him.